This column is an open letter to Florida Gators football coach Dan Mullen in hopes he will realize that he has a massive P.R. problem with UF fans and perhaps even his own administration.
———
Dear Dan:
Hope you and yours are doing well and had a great holiday season.
I just wanted to drop you a note to let you know I’m concerned about how the public perception of you has drastically changed in the course of just one pandemic-plagued season.
I know, I know, that can happen when you get clobbered in a bowl and lose your last three games to finish 8-4. We all know that’s the sort of record that got Ron Zook fired after 2 1/2 seasons at UF.
But I believe this is a much bigger problem than wins and losses. I believe this is about your attitude; not your aptitude. You used to be “Dancing Dan” — the affable, magnetic coach who danced on the sideline during games to loosen up your players and thrill your fans. Now, though, you have morphed into “Disliked Dan” because of the many dumb things you have said and done to stain your reputation.
You are obviously a helluva football coach who has made Florida football fun to watch again after a decade of miserable, mundane offensive ineptitude before you arrived. You have charisma, a sense of humor and a great personality. Fans and media love you — or at least they did.
But you have created a laundry list of controversies and distractions that have made it extremely hard for Gator Nation and UF’s administration to embrace you. It’s no secret you only have three years left on your contract and have not yet received an extension despite the fact that you beat Georgia, took the Gators back to the SEC Championship Game and have gone to three consecutive New Year’s 6 bowl games.
Normally, athletics directors pass out lucrative contract extensions like Halloween candy, even to moderately successful coaches (see Ole Miss with Lane Kiffin and Tennessee with Jeremy Pruitt), but yet UF athletics director Scott Stricklin has not extended your deal yet.
Why do you think that is, Dan?
I’ll tell you why. It’s because you have embarrassed the school with your bizarre behavior, dubious comments and, worst of all, NCAA rules violations. The NCAA show-cause penalty you received for recruiting violations is simply not acceptable in any way, shape or form. The football team’s first probation since the “Give ‘Em Hell Pell” renegade days of the 1980s is an immense embarrassment to a lofty academic institution that U.S. News & World Report recently ranked as the No. 6 public university in the country.
The NCAA violations were the capper, but your reputation was plunging long before the probation was announced just before Christmas. It all started after an early season loss to Texas A&M when you came out with your “pack the Swamp with 95,000 fans” comment in the middle of a pandemic.
During the postgame news conference, I even tried to give you a chance to back off the statement when I asked you a follow-up question so you could clarify your previous comments, but then you inexplicably doubled down on your ill-considered stance. And then, of course, you became a national punchline when the Gators were hit with a COVID-19 outbreak just a few days later.
Then came your complaints about not being able to practice on Tuesday, Nov. 3, because of the NCAA mandate that prohibited colleges from engaging in any sports-related activities on Election Day. You then actually said this mandate made it harder for players to take part in the electoral process because it also prohibited team-organized voting events. This was not true. The NCAA rule only constrained teams from practicing football together on Election Day; it did not constrain them from voting together. At a politically divisive time when there were get-out-to-vote movements among college and professional athletes and coaches across the country, you came out looking petty.
Then there was the Missouri game when you completely lost your composure and helped incite a melee between the two teams going into halftime. Even though TV cameras clearly showed you were enraged as you charged across the field toward the Missouri sideline to scream at officials and had to be held back by coaches and law enforcement, you claimed that you were only trying to get your players off the field.
Dan, babe, listen to me.
You have to be smarter than this.
You have to be better than this.
Get with your super agent Jimmy Sexton and get with your PR people at UF to come up with a strategy that will revitalize your image. And listen to them closely because they know what they’re talking about. Their business is based on making sure that you look as good and appealing as humanly possible.
Just a suggestion, but you might want to start by holding a news conference to shoot down these rumors and rumblings about jumping to the NFL. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take an NFL job if there is team out there offering you a good one, but if there’s no NFL job out there for you, then you need to send a message to fans, recruits and your administration that you are committed to UF. Otherwise, your silence makes it seem like you are shopping for jobs. Nobody likes a job shopper, Dan, especially when the job shopper hasn’t done what he said he was going to do (win championships) at his current job.
If there is an NFL job out there you believe is better than the job you already have then, by all means, you should take it immediately. But beware. Go up to Steve Spurrier’s office and ask the HBC (Head Ball Consultant) about the pitfalls of taking just any NFL job.
Don’t forget that you already have one of the best football-coaching jobs in America at any level — and it’s about to get a whole lot better when the palatial $85 million, 140,000-square-feet Heavener Football Complex is completed.
Anyway, Coach Mullen, these are just some of my thoughts about how you got into the predicament you’re in and how you might get out of it. I hope you will take this letter with the positive purpose for which it is intended.
Happy New Year.
Bianchi.
